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19/12/2011

Finally!! I can start making my Christmas presents for a couple of friends. The last few weeks have been manic with making and sending out orders and making custom pieces for private clients. I have to admit I tend to work much better under pressure -weird I know.

So for my presents I'm knitting a couple of my friends neck warmers - they seem to be the in thing at the moment. Personally I don't like anything around my neck -feels claustrophobic. I found 2 patterns that I liked the look of and didn't take too long to make. One was from ravelry and the other was from Lynne's Pattern Parlour both of them are free for personal use and are very easy to make up. It took me longer than an hour to make them but then I find that I can't knit quickly with large knitting needles and I guess I'm not a "proper" knitter:).

The blue one is the ravelry pattern and the purple one is from Lynne's Pattern Parlour. The blue wool Aero by King Cole and the purple wool is Sirdar Big Softie - each has taken one ball of wool but you can use more if you wanted. The flowers that you can see on each scarf are brooches that I'd made some time back and co-ordinate very well.

Last week I posted a photograph of the dress I was going to wear to the sole traders Christmas meal what I didn't have at the time was the jewellery that I was going to wear. Well I managed to make a beaded necklace and a ring in grey/blue and matt red seed beads.

That's it from me for today. If you would like to see more creativeness why not pop on over to Wendy's and see what the other creative people have been busy making.

14/12/2011

After the success of the new Wearable Art jewellery collection I have been thinking of other ways of using the art tiles – lots of different ideas but these had to go on hold until this week when the last of my custom orders were mailed out. I’ve also been asked if I would be making headbands or brooches so with this in mind I have made a brooch with some leftover pieces. I think I need to adapt it a little bit but for a first trial it’s not too bad.

12/12/2011

My goodness how time flies when you're having fun and busy. It also seems to have gone very cold all of a sudden....................snow on the way? Let's hope it's not as bad as last year.

This coming Saturday I am going to a Sole Traders Christmas party which has been organised by Shilpa Mistry (no not related lol) and is being held at the Indian Ocean Restaurant. I could have a party for one but I guess that wouldn't be much fun now would it? or would it? :)

Joking aside it's a great way to not only enjoy good food and drink but also to make new friends and acquaintance. At last years party I met the lovely Deborah from Tiger Photography and we have since become very good friends.

I've not had time to shop and to be honest I haven't seen anything which shouts out and says "buy me" and I certainly haven't had time to make anything. Which put me on a mission to look through all my "going out" clothes - not that I go out much these days. So having rummaged through my collection I have decided this year I am going to wear a dress I made quite a few years ago and which still fits. It's a gorgeous deep wine colour and the over-dress is in grey with splashes of green, purple and deep red. I've altered the original dress pattern so that it splits open in the front to show the dress underneath. I've taken some pictures today - not the best photography as you can see but you get the idea.

My Party Dress

I'm adding this to Wendy's handmade Monday blog even though it's not something I've made this week. I'm sure Wendy won't mind me sharing something I've made previously. If you have some spare time why not pop on over to Wendy's and see what everyone else has been up to.

05/12/2011

Hello and welcome to the start of another week and it's also Handmade Monday #45. It's getting much colder here and we've had nothing but rain and hail- thankfully no sign of snow.............yet. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we don't get any until the end of the week as I still have a couple of fairs to attend. Last Friday was the annual craft fair at the Rams Head pub in Disley which coincides with the light switch on - you can read about it on my website.

As well as my jewellery projects I have been making some ATC's (Artists Trading Cards) for a swap/trade on ATCsforAll and another on the juried sister site iATCs. I haven't made any ATC's for over 12 months because I've been concentrating on the jewellery and haven't had that urge to create anything arty. However recently I've been having a "craving" to do something and I wanted to get back into the ATC communitly - I have made some lasting friendships on both sites and I've even met quite a few of them in June (2010) at the artfest in Rochester New York. So the 2 swaps I've put my name down for are My Sacred Heart on ATCsforAll and a Trees Swap on iATCs.

I've made a start on the heart themed swap yesterday by sketching out a few designs to see how I can incorporate a few of the essential items that are part of the rules of this trade: we have to add 3 of the 4 item listed - crown, thorns, wings or fire. I think I have the start of one of them using crown, wings and fire.

Here are some of my ideas - not sure how they will turn out but at least I've made a start on them especially as I have to make 3 for the swap and I always include 1 for the host. These are on watercolour paper and I've used my favourite Derwent Inktense watercolour pencils.

As you can see they are at the early stages and still rough around the edges but it gives you an idea of where I'm going with this swap. I don't know about you but I always find getting the initial idea the hardest to do. Once I've got the idea the actual making up of the art isn't as time consuming and it all seems to fall into place.

Well that's enough from me for today. Why not pop on over to Wendy's and see what everyone else has been up to and if you're a crafter and want to join in we'd love to see your work.

27/11/2011

So those of you who know me and my challenges will no doubt be wondering what I'm up to this time. Well I've given myself a knitting challenge and before you say how on earth am I going to do a 30 day knitting challenge STOP because it's not a 30 day challenge. I don't think even I'm that adventurous.

Ok so what am I doing? Well you see I have this pattern by Sirdarwhich uses the Nomad range of wool. But I wanted to make it in a chunky wool..........can you see where I'm going with this? No? Well I decided to make this cardigan/jacket with a different wool still by Sirdar but in their Indie range which happens to be very chunky and thick. I like this pattern because there is no shaping involved - just squares/rectangles for back, fronts and sleeves. So how hard can that be to knit up?

I made a tension piece with the Indie wool using 5.5mm needles and it came out the same size as the instructions for using the Nomad (15 sts and 25 rows to 4in/11cm in garter stitch) and I thought great here I go. I have to say the ladies in the wool shop were/are still skeptical as to whether this is going to work or not.

Today I finished the back and it has taken 7 and a bit balls of wool to make (short version). The challenge is going to be in making up the fronts as they knitted lengthways with 104 stitches and the challenge there is that I can't fit 104 stitches onto my needles so I have decided that I will knit it width ways up (if that makes sense). However my concern is that I won't be able to get the collar to fall over the way it's supposed to.

I've started knitting the front today using 28 stitches but I think I may have to shape the collar or just have it without and have straight fronts and then do something creative with the edges - sounds like a plan? Anyway here is a picture of the back and the start of the front.

21/11/2011

Oh dear I'm late posting this today. I was going to do it yesterday but woke up with a niggling headache - which didn't turn into a headache but you could feel it might do - yeah weird I know but there you go. Anyway here we are at the start of another week and getting closer to Christmas. It's quite frightening when you see someone post on twitter that there are only XXX amount of days left.

I've been busy with a few craft fairs not many and I'm glad as I've had an absolutely amazing response to the Shrink art bracelet I posted last week. I've already had people ordering and paying up front for them - which is great. I've also been making quite a few Christmas cards for customers.

This week I made a necklace with some polyshrink that was left over from another project. These bits make for unusual shapes which in turn makes the necklace impossible to recreate and totally unique. I've used the same design on the pieces just because I like it and it was already out. I've used doubled up lilac satin ribbon instead of using beads because I like the idea that you can adjust the length of the necklace to suit the outfit and neckline of your clothing.

Lilac Shrink Art Necklace with Czech beads

Here is one of the cards I've been commissioned to make -

So there you have it. Now that you've seen what I've made why not pop on over to Wendy's blog to see what all my fellow crafter's have been making.

14/11/2011

Last week I posted this picture showing you the start of my new collection.

If you follow me on twitter or have subscribed to my facebook page then you will already have seen the pieces made into a bracelet. If you haven't then here it is all made up and ready to be sold.

I've had some amazing feedback from people about the bracelet. At a recent Christmas Market held by a ladies networking group I had the bracelet on display and everyone of the ladies who showed interest in it held out their wrists to try it on. Normally I have to ask if they want to try anything on - but not with this one nope they all wanted to try it on. Which I think is a good response.

The first sample piece that I made was made in lime green and that colour seems to be the most popular even though I offer to make the bracelets in the customers choice of colour.

I'll leave you with a photograph of the original piece.

Why not pop over to Wendy's blog to see what my fellow designers/crafters have been up to. We have an array of talented ladies and gents and if you are a fellow designer/crafter why not share your makes - we always like to see what others have been up to.

Please do leave a comment of what you think - it's always nice to know that I've had visitors. There's always tea & cake on offer :)

07/11/2011

Another week over and it's getting colder each day - there was frost on the cars and rooftops this morning. I don't like the cold in fact if I had my way I would quite happily go and live in India or any hot country until it warmed up here in the UK. But for now I will have to make do with the warm company of my on-line friends and blog readers :).

So what do I have to offer you today? Well sometime back I posted a picture of some new jewellery I had been working on and to date I have had some pretty amazing feedback and a couple of requests for purchase. So with that in mind on today's "To Do" list was pricing up the new design starting with the bracelet.

Here are some of the pieces I have made today in readiness to be made up into a bracelet. I will be adding some Czech crystals in coordinating colours along with some wire-work. Excuse the poor quality photograph I took it while they were still drying and had the desk lamp shining down on them. The true colour is more on the red side than orange. I'll take another picture when I've made them all up.

I also painted this papier mache heart box. I bought a few different shaped ones months ago but never got around to doing anything with them. So today while I had the paints out it gave me the opportunity to get one made up. I've used acrylic paint used straight from the tube (my favourite way). There are several layers on the lid to give it lots of texture. The design is the same background stamp I have used for the above bracelet pieces and for the Christmas Card Trees I made in a previous post. The base of the box is half red and half black again the pictures were taken at my work desk with the light shining over the top but the colours are more or less correct.

I hope you've enjoyed reading today's post. If you would like to see what other crafter's/designers have been making why not pop on over to Wendy's blog and check out the links in her Handmade Monday post.

02/11/2011

Last week I posted about networking and how it helps to keep you motivated and “sane” especially if you are a sole trader and work mainly from home.

Today I am writing about a networking event that I run along with Shilpa Mistry – and before you ask no we are not related it’s a question we get asked quite often when we go to the same events .

The idea came about after I returned to work in Tameside after a year of working from a studio in Reddish. In my 12 months working in the Stockport/Cheshire area I found that Stockport council had a thriving Creative Industry and were actively promoting “creatives” in the area and as I had a studio there I was invited to attend their monthly events which I found really useful and got to meet and work with other like minded individuals.

However, moving back to Tameside I found that there was no support/meeting in the area (other than the established BNI’s B4Bs etc) and found myself to be really isolated working from home and not having as much contact with the outside world other than online via twitter, facebook etc. I tried to find help and funding from the local council but unfortunately they were going through cuts etc. So having come to a bit of a dead end Shilpa and I decided that we would do something ourselves and in our own time.

So with my list of ”creatives” database and Shilpa’s expertise in finding a venue we launched Tameside Creatives Network in May 2011 at Costa Coffee. We didn’t really know if anyone would be interested in coming along as it was mainly aimed at creatives (although everyone is welcome). I am pleased to say that we have gone from strength to strength in the last 7 months that we have been running the event and we have members who have been coming from day 1 – so we must be doing something right.

We get people from all types of businesses – photographers, cake designers, graphic artists, web designers, solicitors, a member of staff from Tameside College the list goes on.

The photographs below were taken at todays networking and as you can see the event is relaxed and inviting and there is no pressure to hard sell it’s very informal – which is exactly what we envisioned and we couldn’t have done it without the support of the people who attend our meetings so from both me & Shilpa I would like to say a very big THANK YOU to everyone who has come along and supported us and hopefully we will get to meet many more new businesses at our future events. If you would like more information or would like to come to one of our meetings please have a look at the Tameside Creatives Network website or alternatively you can contact me here via the contact form.

Thank you for reading my rambles and if you have any thoughts please do leave them in the comments box.

30/10/2011

I missed last weeks Handmade Monday because I was very poorly I spent 3 days in bed. I'm slowly getting better still have fits of coughing. My niece told me I sounded like a trumpet when blowing my nose - I'd say more like a fog horn lololol. So my contribution to this weeks handmade Monday is a scarf I knitted for said cheeky niece :). It's made with Indie wool and done in garter stitch over 15 stitches on 51/2 needles. I've added some dangly bits to each end and sewn some buttons along the bottom at the request of my niece (she chose the buttons) - she's a creative little thing 6 going on 16.

As you can see it's quite funky and colourful.

Thank you for popping over to read my post and if you would like to see other creative peoples work why not pop on over to Wendy's blog to see what everyone else has been up to.

27/10/2011

Starting your own business is daunting in itself but to be a woman starting out can be even more frightening especially if you work from home and don’t have a “office/work place” to go to. It can be very lonely and isolating.

When I started my business I had no idea the amount of support and networking events that are out there. Some are specifically catered to women, others are more corporate businesses, business clubs etc. There are too many to name.

In my first few weeks of setting up I received a lot of help and advice from The Tameside Business Family run by the local council in Tameside. This was great in getting to know the practical side of things like tax, book-keeping etc but didn’t really help with connecting to other people in business.

18/10/2011

A few months ago I was commissioned to make some tags for a bride who was having cookies made for her guests. The spec was that they were to be vintage style & colours. The tags were attached to the cookies which were then put into containers on the tables. I don't have any photos of them insitu but here are the pictures I took before I sent them off -

This is the lovely email I received from the couple -

Anita Well, what can I say. Amazing, amazing, amazing......

The cakes and cookies went down a storm and the guests absolutely loved their name tags on the cookies. It was such a special and personal touch.
I cannot thank you enough for your help.

17/10/2011

Diwali Cards

This week I've been making this years Diwali cards to send to friends and family. What is Diwali? Diwali is the hindu festival of light. I won't go into a long post but you can read all about it here.For my cards I've used a rubber stamp with a henna design on it (I don't remember which company its from as I've taken the stamp of the wooden block). I think the shape of the design lends itself as a flame. The base and wording were made digitally using a graphics software. The tiny gems adds a touch of sparkle to the end result.

If you enjoy looking at or even making different types of crafts why not pop on over to Wendy's and take a look at what other crafter's have been up to.

10/10/2011

Hello long time no blog - sorry about that but the problems with the internet connection has really thrown me off balance. Happy to say that it is all sorted - so no excuses not to blog right?

So for my first post in over a month I thought I would show how you can utilise your background rubber stamps. If like me you have boxes of stamps and only use a few favourites then read on. I have a LOT of stamps but use only a few but recently I've been using one of my background stamps for designing some jewellery - wearable art.

But first I would like share the 2 cards I've made using a stamp from Stamp Camp (Whimsy Waves #S358).

The first card is a trio of Christmas Trees.

The second card is a parcel.

And I mentioned a jewellery project - well here is a sneak peek.

Thank you for popping in to read my post. I would love to hear your thoughts on the above projects so don't be shy in leaving a comment.

If you would like to see more creativeness then why not pop on over to Wendy's and check out the Handmade Monday Blog.

16/08/2011

Hello lovely followers apologies again for the lack of updates but as some of you will know I have had a bit of a nightmare with my internet connection for the last 2 months - hopefully it will be sorted tomorrow as I've finally managed to get an engineer booked to come and sort out where the problem is.

I should have written this post 2 weeks ago but haven't been able to due to lack of internet. However, finally fingers crossed the internet doesn't crash while I'm writing this post.You maybe looking at the title and thinking what is a tweet up - well very briefly it's a gathering of people who are on twitter and are looking to meet face to face. This particular tweet up was organised by the lovely Julia from Brides Up North. This wasn't just any old tweet up it was for people who are specifically involved in the wedding/bridal industry. I was one of the lucky ones to get a ticket - there was a waiting list as the event had sold out.

The event was hosted on 7the August 2011 at The Didsbury House Hotelwhich I have to say is absolutely gorgeous and wouldn't mind spending a couple of nights at. I have to admit I was really nervous walking in on my own -but I needn't have worried because the first person I met was a lovely young man named Ian Martindale who happens to be a photographer based in Yorkshire but also works around the northwest.

The official photographers were Jenny and Keith McAvoy - it was a pleasure to meet them both and they have given me a few exclusive photographs taken at the event.Unfortunately I didn't get to speak to everyone so apologies to those I haven't mentioned in the post.Well I'm gonna stop waffling and let you have peek at some photographs courtesy of McAvoy Photographers - thank you Jenny and Keith.

There are more delicious looking photographs on Julia's blog of all the other people who were there on the night and you will agree that a good night was had by all. In one of the photographs you will see a table set up as a sweet stall - can I just say I DID NOT touch one of those sweets - why? because I was into day 7 of my 30 day challenge of cutting out sweets, chocolates, biscuits and cake - aye you read right - currently I am onto day 16 but more of that on another blog.

Here are links to some of the other creative people who I had the pleasure of meeting at the event. I hope you will pay them a visit -

31/07/2011

What a busy week it's been with meetings with new clients, new web designer and an interview on Redshift Radio (see previous post) oh and it was my dads birthday.

So with all this going on I didn't have much time in the week to make my friends birthday present -it's her birthday today (1st Aug). I wasn't sure whether to buy her the usual wine and flowers or a piece of jewellery. A few years ago I gave her vouchers for Christmas and made a gift holder out of card to present it in. It seems she kept the pocket and has been using it to hold her bits of papers etc for when she goes shopping. We met up a few weeks ago and she showed me the now tattered pocket and asked if I'd make her another one. So this gave me the idea of making her a fabric purse to put her vouchers and notes in for her birthday.

Here is what I made her - fabric purse with hidden button closure, handmade card and because I'd forgotten to buy wrapping paper and couldn't find the gift bags I used some brown paper to wrap it all in. I think the package looks quite neat and was really pleased with the way it turned out. It's amazing what you can do with a bit of ribbon and lace.

Oh and in-case you're wondering she has already had her present today (Sunday)

She had a little gathering at her house and we all enjoyed some Pimms and had a lovely buffet and for dessert there was chocolate covered marshmallows, trifle and a baked raspberry cheesecake. Then we had a game of Family Fortunes to end the afternoon.

If you've enjoyed reading my little post and would like to see what other crafters have been making then why not pop over to Wendy's blog and click on the links.

28/07/2011

Today I spent a couple of hours as a guest on the European Lunch hour (well 2 hours12pm to 2pm) at RedShift Radio. I was invited by the lovely Chrisoula Sirigou the owner of Explorama a company that provides very unique/alternative holiday packages. I met Chrisoula a couple of months ago at the Pre-Launch of the Female Entrepreneur Association and on the FEA LinkedIn group. Chrisoula had started a thread and invited people to put their names forward if they were interested in going on the show. Anyway to cut a long story short I put my name down like you do and I was invited to take part in todays show.

The programme today was all about France it's culture, history, food etc. We also talked about our passions ans what keeps us creative and how to keep a good work/life balance and the consequencies of stress and bad working habits and the importance of realising when to take time out for you. You can listen back to the show just go to the radios website and click on the schedule then on the European Lunch hour box and if you scroll down you will see the previous show dates.

As well as myself there were 2 other guests -

Rachel Kasaven who is a lifestyle coach and provides training and coaching to help you succeed in life. Rachel works with businesses and on a one to one basis. You can find out more about Rachel and her work on her website Rachel Kasaven Coaching .

Angelita Woosnam is a holistic therapist and is the owner of Indigo Spirit. Angelita offers treatments such as Indian Head Massage, Reiki, Facelift Massage and my personal favourite Reflexology.

I would like to finish of by saying a BIG thank you to Chrisoula & Redshift Radio for the opportunity to go on the show and to say how lovely it was to chat with Rachel and Angelita. It was definately one of those days I will remember for a long time to come and for all the right reasons.

Please do pop over to the websites as there is a lot more information than what I have posted here.

27/07/2011

I can't believe I'm already onto day 22 of my 30 day challenge the days seem to have flown by. It's been good having set myself a challenge otherwise I would still be waiting for tomorrow to arrive and my Etsy shop would still be fairly empty.

I haven't uploaded the recent makes to Etsy as they are going to be shown to Annabel who runs Eco Chic Boutique in Boughton Chester. Annabel has been selling some of my jewellery in her lovely little shop where she also sells the most gorgeous dresses and outfits which can be made to order as a bespoke/customised piece.

Here are a couple of the newer items I've made this week -

I also made these customised White Swarovski Pearl Crysal & Crystal AB earrings for a friend of mine. She saw one of her friends daughters wearing something similar at a party and wanted me to make her something along that line. My photography doesn't do them justice.

So the next challenge is to come up with another challenge - any ideas welcome - please feel free to leave your suggestions here.

25/07/2011

Firstly apologies for not posting anything for a couple of weeks. Life's been a little bit hectic and stressed but I seem to be on track again.

I missed last weeks Handmade Monday as hosted by the lovely Wendy . If you craft or just like to see what people have been creating then pop on over to Wendy's blog to see all the other crafters and their makes - you won't be disappointed.

So what have I been up to? I've set myself a challenge to photograph a piece of jewellery everyday for the next 30 days -today is day 20. I can't believe how time disappears and that I have kept up the challenge - only 10 more days to go.

Here are a couple of new pieces that I made in the last couple of days. I'll be taking these to Eco Chic Boutique in Boughton, Chester. Annabel has been selling my jewellery for quite a few months now and I hope she likes these enough to sell them in her shop.

11/07/2011

Another Monday and it's time for Handmade Monday hosted by the lovely Wendy from 1stUniqueGifts. It's also Wendy's birthday so this makes an it extra special day for her and her hubby who also shares his birthday today.

Happy Birthday to you both hope you have a fab day.

I started a 30 day challenge after watching this YouTube video which was posted on facebook by one of my contacts.

What's my challenge? To take a photograph of one piece of jewellery for the next 30 days and list it on my etsy shop - today is day 6 (I still need to take today's pics later on). I have also started an album on my flickr account and now that I have announced it to the world on twitter and facebook I have no excuse to not keep it up.